4 Baffled Republicans distance themselves from Trump on guns

House conservatives say they are baffled by President Trump’s recent support for a string of Democratic-backed gun control ideas, with some lawmakers even questioning how committed he is to protecting the Second Amendment.“I don’t know how he came unmoored,” said libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), one of the staunchest defenders of gun rights in Congress. “President Trump can do more damage than President Obama did to the Second Amendment with the bully pulpit, because Republicans instinctively rejected anything Obama put forward.” House Republicans expressed a mix of shock, frustration and disappointment that Trump endorsed a Democratic “wish list” of gun control proposals during a meeting on Wednesday at the White House. The ideas he spoke favorably of included imposing new age limits on gun purchases and taking guns away from dangerous people. Republicans in both chambers of Congress, and particularly the House, made clear they have little interest in adopting Trump’s “comprehensive” approach. “On a lot of these issues, where we believe that there is an infringement on Second Amendment liberties, we’re going to be opposed to those,” said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, a band of roughly 30 conservative hard-liners. Trump has been eager to take action on gun control following a deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school last month, with student survivors emerging as powerful voices in the politically charged debate.

The president has since hosted a series of listening sessions on gun violence, including the televised meeting at the White House with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday.During the freewheeling, hourlong session, Trump delighted Democrats and infuriated Republicans when he voiced support for expanded background checks and urged lawmakers to dramatically expand the scope of their legislative response, which GOP leaders had tried to keep as narrow as possible.

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